Fernie 11 Week Instructor Course 2016/17 - Week 2

Heather, a graphic designer by profession, is on our famous 11 week instructor course in Fernie as part of a career break. Unfortunately, with an injured wrist, Heather is off her board while it recovers, but her saving grace is that there’s still so much fun to be had off the ski hill on a Nonstop program.

Week two has been another rest week for my wrist, it’s been difficult listening to my friends raving about how they are progressing but I’ve been encouraging them to share what they’ve learnt each day so I don’t feel like I’m missing too much. The consensus from both my skier and snowboarder housemates is that the course is moving forward at a fair pace, there’s lots of information to take in, a host of new skills being gained and not a day passes where something new isn’t learned. Stories of hitting the rail park, learning how to carve more precisely and Friday aprés nachos have me itching to get back up the mountain!

On Saturday a group of us went snowshoeing in the woods above town; another MORE Program activity. An enthusiastic hill walker myself, it was nice to try the on-snow version, I hadn’t snowshoed previously but it was fairly straightforward once you got going. The shoes really help to lift and give you access and grip, making walking in the deep snow more efficient and almost natural. We set off on a trail called ‘Sidewinder’ that snaked up into the hills through the dense larch and spruce forest, which would occasionally open up giving us an amazing overlook of town, Mt Fernie, Three Sisters and the five vast bowls that make up the resort to the south. It was a gorgeous blue sky day too. If I’m being honest, I wasn’t expecting such a keen pace. I had naively imaged a nice stroll through the woods taking pictures and enjoying the Fernie nature. We did off course take a few breaks to catch our breathe and take some photos. It actually felt great to get the heart pumping after nearly two weeks of being pretty sedentary. We did the three hour hike in just over two - not bad!  

Sunday was a 6am start to catch the 3.5 hour bus ride north to Panorama for a day of snowmobiling. I’m by no means a petrol-head, I don’t even like driving that much and I hate the smell of petrol fumes, but snowmobiling, it’s up there on the list of most fun things to do! Almost as fun as snowboarding. Almost. We arrived to find a large assemblage of machines lined up in rows ready for us to rip through the mountains on – but first, a quick run down of the controls and the different hand signals to use. Once we were fitted with helmets and boots, and after a few practice laps of the play field we grouped up with an instructor and teared off in single file up the trail. The scenery was stunning, I had to focus hard not to get distracted by the view in some sections! We flew up the winding trail through the trees, all the while becoming more and more comfortable with the machine, getting used to shifting our weight to aid in turning. It’s cold when you’re just sitting, flying along at speed, but heated handle bars are an absolute master stroke. We stopped midmorning at a little hut on Paradise Mountain for a much needed hot drink and a snack. Afterwards, our instructor brought us up into a huge open basin. We skirted the perimeter a couple of times to understand where the boundaries of the terrain lay and then we were let loose to scream around and enjoy ourselves. There were lots of different features to explore; steep shoots, smooth rollers, bumps and a halfpipe-like channel at the far edge that I really enjoyed steering up and down the sides of — it was so much fun, my face was sore from constantly grinning. We returned to the hut for a barbecue lunch and some more hot tea, framed by great views of the Purcell Mountain range. On our way back down the trail to the base station we stopped briefly to check out a waterfall, bright blue and completely frozen from top to bottom: Mother Nature showing off once again in beautiful British Columbia!

This weekend’s MORE activities have stoked the fire and I’m now more excited than ever to get back out on the slopes!

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